Kibbutz: A View to a Skill

Royeros Christofides recounts his experience on a kibbutz and the practical and social benefits it offers students

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After negotiating the super-tight security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, a bus took me from the capital, via Haifa, to the lush enclosure of the Yisre'el Valley. For the next few months, the simple tenements of Ramat David were to be my home as I worked as a kibbutz volunteer.

The first person I met was the volunteer representative, a resident of the kibbutz assigned to deal with the pastoral care of the volunteers. They're there to help you out with any problems as well as to provide a link between volunteers and residents.

On a kibbutz, the volunteers' accommodation is usually removed from the homes of the kibbutz residents and is similar to student accommodation located on campuses around Britain. Indeed, time spent on any of Israel's numerous kibbutzim is excellent preparation for university life. You'll get used to living away from home, learn how to discipline yourself and develop your social skills. Volunteers are, like students, renowned for their partying, so a good time is guaranteed.

The number of volunteers on a kibbutz depends on its size and the amount of work needed to maintain it. Owned and administered communally by its members, the kibbutz is a settlement, usually agricultural, that depends on the work done by overseas guests to help perpetuate the social utopia it strives for. So, despite the fun to be had, your primary function as a volunteer is to work.

You start early but you finish early too. I was up at dawn for every job I did on the kibbutz, but was invariably finished by early afternoon. So there were plenty of daylight hours to spend collecting avocados in nearby fields, challenging kibbutzniks to hotly contested games of football, or cooling down at the swimming pool and playing table tennis with other volunteers.

The evenings take care of themselves. Kibbutz Ramat David had its own club, Vertigo, with free entry and a drinks discount for the volunteers, so the nightlife department was well taken care of. However, an on-site club isn't necessary for you to enjoy yourself – volunteers always find a way.

At Ramat David, a small kibbutz, there were always between 15 and 20 volunteers at any one time. Generally, the jobs are allocated on a hierarchical basis – the newest recruits to a kibbutz start with the worst jobs and work their way upwards. I began in the kitchen, washing the dishes. I then moved into the canteen, laying tables and replenishing the buffet. Eventually I made it to the one job that everyone wanted – gardening. If you're on a kibbutz during spring and summer, you, like me, will desperately want an outdoor job.

Gardening was often physically demanding, but appreciative kibbutzniks were always on hand to feed us squash and biscuits after a job well done. Moreover, after a few summer weeks in the gardens, your skin is tanned and your torso rippling.

Time spent working on a kibbutz develops your sense of independence while the teamwork skills you learn, whether in the kitchen, the garden or somewhere else, will stand you in good stead for future employment. You'll learn to be adaptable, cultivating a variety of skills. You'll learn how to budget your allowance (invaluable experience for potential students) and the communal allowance given for volunteer food.

You will learn not only to relate to people from differing cultural backgrounds but also to live peacefully and happily with them.

For your efforts, the kibbutz will pay you a wage. It's very small, but my friends and I at Ramat David managed to save enough money to travel somewhere every other weekend. Also, volunteer representatives organise excursions to the beach or local sites of interest.

Travelling around, you see some of the many Bedouin gypsy settlements that are scattered across Israel. More significantly, you might see armed Israeli soldiers, an indication of the Middle East's instability. Cross the border and you learn the Arab opinion on the troubles that have long affected this part of the world.

Time on a kibbutz offers you an affordable, valuable and rewarding way to live in another country.